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Workers of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have raised alarm over
increasing revenue leakages at the nation’s seaports.

This is even as the workers urged
the agency to recruit lower cadre workers to monitor revenue collection by
terminal operators at the ports.

Mr Leke Sanni, the President of the NPA branch of the Maritime Workers
Union of Nigeria (MWUN) in an interview, said that the agency was losing
billions in revenue due to improper monitoring of revenue collection by terminal
operators at the ports following a shortage of workforce on the part of the NPA.

According to him, “the staff strength at the NPA is currently not in
favour of lower cadre workers who ordinarily should be on the field to monitor
revenue generation at the ports.

We currently have more senior cadre staffs who are always sitting in the
offices.

“The senior staff and the management team stay back in the office to
make decisions, but the lower cadre workers are on the field, inside the ports
to monitor how money comes in.

“They are the ones who do the major work because the art of generating
revenue for the Federal Government takes place in the ports, not in the
offices.

“But the number of lower cadre workers who we depend on to do the major
work is very low compared to the number of senior cadre workers who sits back
in the offices.

“Last year, the agency conducted interview for the employment of
workers, but till date we have not heard anything about that interview.

“There is need for the agency to employ more hands to avoid revenue
leakages at the ports.

“We need people to monitor the concession areas in order to avoid
revenue leakages at the ports. We cannot continue to depend on what the
terminal operators give us as what is generated as revenue,” he said.